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A Mass Mortality Of Fishes In Lake Titicaca (Peru-Bolivia) Associated With The Protozoan Parasite Ichthyophthirius Multifiliis, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, R. Alfaro

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

In December 1981 , an epizootic of the protozoan parasite Ichthyophthirius multifiliis killed an estimated 18 million killifish Orestias spp. in Lake Titicaca, a high-altitude tropical system. Of the dead fish collected, 93% were adult O. agassii, a commercially important species that is abundant in the littoral zone. Juvenile Orestias spp., pelagic species, and some other littoral zone fis hes were slightly affected. lchthyophthirius multifiliis was probably introduced with exotic fishes brought to Lake Titicaca in the 1940s and 1950s.